Sunday, 28 June 2015

So Equal Vision went ahead and pressed up a second press of Bane's 'Don't Wait Up' LP from last year on two different colours of vinyl. The first press came on blue vinyl and yellow vinyl, and the second press comes on blue vinyl and yellow vinyl. The second time around, however, the vinyl is clear rather than solid.

Picking these up also reminded me that I never got around to picking up the black vinyl copy of the European pressing on End Hits Records. This one was, I believe, the third press, although it was not very well advertised and hasn't been seen too much, making me think that the numbers made must be lower than previous pressings, although that is of course just speculation.

These three add to my previous nine, meaning that I now have 12 copies of this record. And guess what. I just saw a picture of a green one yesterday on instagram!

Wednesday, 24 June 2015

Even though I collect Integrity records, and have well over 100 of the things, I'm still missing loads. Looking at it positively, there are lots for me to chase! Until a couple of months ago I didn't have any of the reissue splits with Mayday. Then I realised that I needed to try to pick them up. There are three colours that are pretty easy to get (yellow, red, white), of which I only have one, but I did manage to find this rarer blueish grey copy for not much money, so I figured I'd cross that off the list first.

No idea what the crack is with this. But I'm happy to have it as it seems by far the least common colour of this 7" out there. Unless of course there are colours I don't even know about, which is always possible.

Sunday, 21 June 2015

Here's another long lost and forgotten 90's hardcore 7" that I won a test press of recently. Everlast 'Drown The Self' 7" on Chapter Records. I saw this on eBay and won it for $11. It comes in a plain white paper sleeve with the band name, record title and song titles written in black ink. Looks kinda boring huh?

I dug out my regular copy in order to snap the test next to the actual cover. There's a lot of blue going on here.

I used to like this 7" back in the mid 90s. The band's best song was not on this 7" at all, but on a 7" compilation called 'The Cold War' (I have a test of that as well). This 7" sounds pretty typical of the early to mid 90s. If I didn't have my collection in alphabetical order then I'd file it next to Green Rage, Canon and Soulstice... if that means anything to you.

Saturday, 20 June 2015

Now and again I get caught up in the hype. When it was announced that Jawbreaker's 1994 LP '24 Hour Revenge Therapy' as being repressed, with the first 300 copies on red vinyl, a virtual shitstorm ensued. It wasn't possible to select either a red or black vinyl option on the site. You just had to buy a copy and hope you got a colour one. People started posting what their order number was, assuming that an order number less than 300 meant that they had scored a red copy. And of course, when I read all of this stuff going on, I started to panic thinking I would miss out. So I placed an order. And in the end I got lucky.

I remember this coming out, and I remember seeing the band play live when they toured the record in 1994. It was the only time I ever saw them play.

The funny thing is that I have been trying to avoid buying reissues for the last couple of years. But this one fully sucked me in.

So on a slightly related note, there is one Jawbreaker record that has been on my wants list for years, and I have never had a single shot at owning it. It's the first Jawbreaker 7" on grey vinyl.

This was released by Very Small Records back in 1989. The first press was 500 copies on grey vinyl. The remaining 3000 copies came in a different colour sleeve and were on black vinyl.

I've had this on my wants list for a long time. I decided that I needed to cross it off, so spent a little more to get one.

And around the time that I picked this up, I also spotted a green vinyl copy of the Jawbreaker / Jawbox split 7", so figured I would grab that too.

And finally... I found the complete show that I attended in 1994 on youtube. The venue name is wrong, but it's undoubtedly the show I went to. Pretty cool that I can relive this 20 years on. Ah, the internet.

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

There is, quite simply, too much music out there. You pick and choose based on various factors. But you can't listen to it all. Recently I noticed a couple of people post pictures of the cover of the first Life of Agony album. I had never heard the record or the band, but based on the number of times I was seeing this album cover pop up, I decided to give it a listen. I went to youtube and played it and within seconds I was really into it. So I downloaded the album and then found myself listening to it non-stop for three weeks straight. I played it about three times a day and had no time for anything else. So when I got chance to buy the record this past weekend, I jumped on it.

The funny thing is that this record came out in 1993, and I had seriously never heard the band even once (that I was aware of) in the twenty two years since. I had heard of the band and seen the record over the years, but in my head the band's name, the record label and the cover art made me think that this was some kind of lame nu metal album... despite nu metal not really being a thing until a few years later. Not that I know anything about that stuff, of course.

Anyway, it's funny to think that this is the best record I have heard this year and it came out when I was 18. Kinda makes me think that I am an idiot for prejudging some things based on band name or cover art or some other nonsense. But then again, as I said, there's too much music out there. You can't listen to anything, so you make choices. Sometimes, however, you probably get it wrong.

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Ride are one of those bands that I never was interested in. I had friends who loved them at school, but to me back then they sounded like the soundtrack to wet weekend, i.e. boring. Last summer, for some unknown reason, I got inspired to check out their 1990 LP 'Nowhere' and found myself really enjoying it. So I added it to my mental want list and started looking out for a good condition original copy. Well, a year later and I'm still searching for one, but last week I spotted a test press for sale on eBay, which I ended up being the only bidder on and winning for £15. I guess it's only really hardcore kids who are interested in test pressings. The average indie / shoegaze fan, it would seem, is less fussed.

It comes in a cool Creation Records 'disco' sleeve. Looks much cooler than a plain white sleeve, for sure.

The reverse of the sleeve tells us that this is a 'promotional copy only'. Not sure why they needed to add the word 'only'. Quite clearly it is a promotional copy, but whether it is 'only' a promotional copy could be debated. I mean, it could also be a frisbee, a placemat or a thing to scrape the ice from your car window.

Kinda funny to only own a test press of a record and not a regular copy. But I hope to rectify that situation soon by picking up an original first press with embossed sleeve and sticker. Shouldn't be too tough to find one as they are relatively common, although finding one in top condition will no doubt prove quite tough. We shall see...

Thursday, 11 June 2015

It's funny, because I have had some things on my wants list for YEARS without really ever seriously chasing them. I guess I use my wants list more of a reminder list of things to look out for, although if I'm honest half of the things on there I'm pretty much indifferent about. Plus I'm old and don't really spend time actively chasing things that I want. Instead, I adopt a patient approach. I just wait for a copy to be come available at the right price, and sometimes this takes a long time to happen. As a result, some stuff stays on my want list for a long time. And here's a prime example...

Harvest released their 'Living With A God Complex' LP way back in 1997. I didn't manage to get a colour vinyl copy back then and have only now, 18 years later, managed to get around to picking one up for the first time. Pretty much the dictionary definition of 'patience' I'm sure you will agree.

There were two colours of this thing. As you can see, I managed to get the more common colour, which is clear orange.

This copy here is in particularly great shape, and includes the giant fold out poster, which has a very 90s feel about it.

The other colour that exists is grey vinyl, with hand numbered labels out of 50 copies. Assuming it takes the same amount of time for me to find one as it did this copy, I should have one in time for my 58th birthday. Now there's a sobering thought...

Sunday, 7 June 2015

It barely seems like a year ago that Violent Reaction appeared on the scene and started grabbing the world's attention. They still feel like a 'new' band to me. Yet it was almost three years ago that their debut 7" was released (and somewhere round a year previous that their demo came out). Anyhow, the point is that this 'new' band has now been about for the best part of four years, and throughout have been gaining more and more attention. What started out as a one man project has grown to one of the biggest hardcore bands in the world, and after an LP two years ago on Painkiller Records, we now have a second full length, this time on Revelation.

The first press had two colours of vinyl. Clear vinyl was out of 315 copies:

And gold vinyl was out of a whopping 1,243 copies:

It's great to see Revelation releasing more new music by new bands and, even better, to finally see them release a record by a UK band. I never thought I would actually see the day.